Cosmetics
by Pandaawrites
Summary: Marth's appearance appeals to the public, and approved handsome by his peers. But what if the brawlers discover a secret from a friend who came from faraway to see them? One-Shot. Not quite quality and controversial I guess.


"Prince of Altea! The prince with the face that outshines a nation!"

The crowd hurled as Marth once again held champion of the pageant.

The brawlers watched as they gnawed on their snacks.

"Well, we all expected Marth to win that pageant." said Samus calmly.

"He is the face of us brawlers after all." added Fox. "Righty O, off to bed."  
And Fox left the couch he shared with Falco.

The brawlers continued to glare at the screen where Marth was crowned for the third time. During that moment, Pit blurted a rather awkward question.  
"I wonder what's the secret behind his looks?"

ll the brawlers looked at him. Then looked at each other. And thanks to the question there was this awkward silence between them.

"I guess it's not just a matter of looks there, Pit" answered Snake who was sitting in his box holding a bag of cheese balls. "I guess that also has to do with charm and manner and other factors as well."

"And his wisdom and knowledge." added Falco. "In a pageant, you're supposed to have looks and brains. Just having looks is meaningless, plus Marth isn't bad at all."

"Yeah, and lets not forget he's a top brawler" said Link. "I sometimes am jealous of how he well he attacks, plus he's calm too."

"Well too bad he's being a pain in the butt by caring lots about his appearance than his skills." butted Ike. Then he sat up from the sofa and returned to his room.

The others watched as Ike left the room.

"Don't worry. Ike's just jealous that he got a D in the combat aptitude test and Marth got a straight A." said Link and took the remote and switched channels to see what was good on TV after the pageant.

Thanks to Link, everyone began sweating over this month's combat aptitude test.

"Aww man. Gotta go." said Falco by the thought of seeing Mario on the testing platform, eyeing them seriously like an ancient Egyptian pharaoh looking over his slaves.

"I got a C on last time's aptitude test and I don't want to disappoint...heh, for myself and Lady Palutena." said Pit. And he went out of the room.

"Oh yeah, the aptitude test's this week. Uh-oh, gotta go." said Snake, and he flipped his box upside-down and disappeared into the dark.

Link watched as the brawlers left one by one for the sake of the word "Aptitude test". And later, Link himself turned off the tele and went back to his room to prepare for the aptitude test.

The aptitude test was the after all the meaning of staying or leaving after all.

* * *

It was two days before the aptitude test, and the brawlers were training hard to get a good grade in it. There were those who needed a good grade to lift up their overall results and stay; yet there were others that barely needed to train and were either lazing on the couch of the combat area or refining their peers' skills.

While the brawlers were training hard, Peach, who was lazing on the couch with Red and Metaknight found Marth standing at the door of the waiting room.

"Greetings my fellow brawlers! I came back in victory!"

"Yeah, I know." replied Bowser annoyingly who was standing near a portal that led him to the Brawler dimension. "You're late for training." then Bowser disappeared into the portal.

"Yo, Marth" shouted Link who'd just popped up from one of the other portals. "Mind you teach me and Pit a few combat techniques for the aptitude test?"

"With pleasure." replied the cerulean prince. And he went to the portals with Link.

As most of the brawlers were training, the door banged open and the brawlers present were surprised to find an old friend of theirs.

"Yo guys! Remember me?" said the figure as he leaned on one side of the door frame.

Peach's face brightened with delight.

"Oh my! Dear fire knight, you're finally back!"  
And Peach hurled to the door of the waiting room and gave the teen a generous, warm hug and kiss on the cheek.

"Glad you're back to see us, Roy!"

Roy fixed his tiara and suit, unruly from Peach's fury hugging.

"Hi Peach. Thanks for that." stiffly chuckled the redhead teen. Roy looked around.

"Where's Martha?" asked the teen, mockingly.

"Martha?" sneered Ganondorf who'd just come out of the portal. "You mean Beauty Prince?" and he disappeared into another portal to face a different opponent.

"I guess there's an aptitude test coming up." said Roy as he saw brawlers hustle and bustle across portals.

"Yes. There is." replied Peach. "Ooh! Time for me to train! Zelda!" she called as she saw the Herulian princess come out from one of the portals, coughing.

"Oh dear! What happened?" said the Mushroom princess as she neared the Herulian.

"Wario used fart at me!" coughed Zelda "Now the stadium smells so bad, I was forced to leave!"

"Never mind." replied Peach as she took out a bottle of perfume and sprayed it on her. "There! You're all fragrant now! Let's train my fellow princess!" and the two princesses disappeared into the portals.

As Roy watched the princesses disappear into the portals. He sat on the couch where Peach once sat on.

"So guys, when's the aptitude test?"

Red and Metaknight looked at each other then looked at Roy.

"We'd like to know who you are first." said Metaknight as he gave the redhead his shining starlight death stare, and Red stared along with Metaknight.

Roy leaped a bit from their calculating glances and awkwardly replied, "I'm Roy. I'm Marth's friend and I came back to see him and others, especially Link and Pit." The two brawlers eyed each other skeptically before replying to Roy.  
"So...you're a friend of Marth's." said Metaknight, and after saying so, the two brawlers and the former Smash Bros member looked up to see the steathy mercenary, Ike, who'd just came back from training. As soon as Ike noticed Roy, Ike gave him the same hard stare Roy recognized from nearly a year ago, the eyes that seeked competition with him, then went away to another portal. The brawlers and the former Smash Bros member looked back at each other.

"Heh, my old rival. He beat me in the aptitude test a year ago and 'coz of that I needed to clean out my stuff and make room for him. Besides, I used to be Marth's roommate." and Roy chuckled.

"Hey, Metaknight" poked Red with one of his pokeballs. "Wanna train with me?" and Metaknight agreed.

Red turned to Roy.

"Sorry but the day after tomorrow's the aptitude test. Talk to ya later." And the two disappeared into the portals.

Roy knew, if he were to see Marth, he'd have to wait till dinner...but perhaps a stay at the dorm for a day or two won't disturb anyone nor anything...as long as Mario isn't there.

* * *

It is now dinnertime and the brawlers lined up for today's special dinner cooked heartily for the brawlers due to their test was coming up. As Roy got out his visitor pass to the Toads in the kitchen, they spooned out tonight's supper on the redhead's tray, and after a polite thank you, the redhead sat at a place near the window, where he and the Swordsmen used to sit.

As Roy was ready to dine in, he heard a familiar voice call his name, and he lifted his head to see a blonde elf, a brunette angel and the cerulean prince...only that the cerulean prince looked a bit different from what he used to look like.

More...trimmed.

"Roy!" said Marth invitingly and wrapped his arm around Roy's shoulder. Link pulled the redhead away from Marth and gave Roy a nudgie and Pit laughed as he watched the original three swordsmen of Melee reunite once more.

"Yo, Roy! Isn't seeing you come back great?" nudged Link.

Marth chuckled and messed up Roy's hair.

"How's life going at your place?" asked the cerulean prince.

"Not bad..." answered the redhead, with a sinking deep feeling in his stomach.

Whenever Roy looked at Marth's face, he couldn't help but slightly cringe.

"Huh? What's wrong Roy?" asked Link, who noticed whenever Roy gets a glimpse of Marth's face, cringes.

"Nothing...really." said the redhead, already feeling uneasy from the tension forming between each other.

"Maybe its just that the baby fat's gone..." muttered the redhead to himself and told himself to relax.

But he notice that Pit had noticed every single one of Roy's moves.

As Marth and Link lined up to get food, Pit sat beside Roy.

"What's wrong, Roy? You're not usually like this."

The redhead swallowed. "I don't know. Marth now just seems...different..."

Pit turned back to glance at Marth.

Maybe Roy was right about it and Pit began to sweat at the palms.

Marth did look a bit different compared to the days when Pit first met him.

"Yeah...look at his jawline...it looks like it's been...shaved sharp."

Pit and Roy then escaped to the men's washroom. There was something they needed to talk about...and quick.

As the teens gathered in the washroom, Roy took out a number of materials which looked like newspapers from his bag, and Pit read the articles as Roy threw out the materials pile by pile.

Pit was shocked with what he sees. The headlines wrote that Marth may have had cosmetic surgery for the pageant, and showed pictures of him in last year's pageant and compared it photos of him in this year's pageant. The media said that his jawline had obviously been shaved thin. Then they compared it with the previous pageant. Compared to now, Marth had a stubbier nose, and his features were more boyish.

Pit swallowed. So that's why Roy cringed whenever he saw Marth. He saw articles of his cosmetic surgery suspension. It aroused doubts within his community and the fallen kingdom of Altea. But it didn't stop there. The media asked the King and Queen of Altea and Marth's ex-wife about his cosmetic surgeries. They gave no comment and shut themselves in leaving Marth to fend for himself. In fact the media had asked them different questions; about their opinions about their son's facial alterations, and his ex-wife about whether their reason for divorce was her ex-husband doing cosmetic surgery.  
And none of them gave answers.

"I doubt it's just the baby fat?" said Pit.

"Exactly what I was thinking." replied Roy as he spreaded the articles upon the sink.

Pit stared at the articles, half-dazed, half-gobsmacked. No.

"Why would Marth do all this?" asked Pit.

Roy shook his head. "I don't know."

But just as the boys continued with their conversation, someone in the washroom was eavesdropping.

But who?

As the figure left the washroom, he joined his friends in for some breaking news. And so the secret of Marth's surgery scandal went loose.

* * *

On the day of the aptitude test, the brawlers waited in front of the testing site...for someone.

"Hello!" said the cerulean prince as he came through the doors that lead to the entrance of the testing site.

But instead of warm welcomes, the brawlers gave him stares of an assortment. Some were hostile, others were disappointment, and some others, worried.

"Marth." Began Pit. "Why did you hide from us?"

"Hide? Hide what? I'm here!"

"Well, look for yourself." and Ganondorf rudely threw a pile of a papers at Marth's armor. As Marth turned the papers, he saw it.  
Busted.

"I've always thought your face was ever-changing." said Samus coldly. "And my theories are proven right."

"Heard what Spaghetti Breath said?" said Bowser. "No cosmetic surgeries allowed.  
We don't know what you filled your face with but you know it ruins your face."

"Ike?"

Ike scoffed.

"Look Marth, cosmetic surgery isn't wrong but don't you think you're obsessively doing it?" questioned Snake.

"Plus what's so important about the pageant?" asked Link.

Marth began to sweat. The nightmare he dreaded had come true.  
Marth swallowed.

Anyways, could Marth ever tell anyone that his father never liked his appearance when he was young, which lead to his obsessive tweaking?

If he did, wonder what would happen.

"Sorry, but I'm gonna have to take you to Mario." said Pit, with a sorry tone.

Whatever is ahead, Marth is bound to be troubled.

* * *

**I just rised all hell writing this. I've thought back of Marth's everchanging face and yeah, this came out. Interesting I was thinking why I didn't think of this years ago in my secondary school days and maybe it's because I was obsessed with Marth then and didn't notice.**

**I regret everything I said about Marth when I was his fangirl. *wipes self on wall regretting painfully***

**If this is an offense to Marth fans or cosmetic surgery people, I'm sorry. (Pandaa you're not even sorry for writing Marth like this.**

**I don't remember the last time I did anything for the SSB fandom.**


End file.
